When connected to a network, a mobile wireless device (also referred to as a user equipment) may be behind so-called “intermediate nodes,” such as firewalls, network address translators, and the like, that can limit the accessibility and visibility of the mobile wireless device. To maintain connectivity, the mobile wireless device may establish a connection to a server and then attempt to maintain the connection by sending keep alive messages to the server. When the mobile wireless device sends keep alive messages to the server on a timely basis, these messages traverse the intermediate node and maintain a binding at the intermediate node to enable the connection to remain open between the mobile wireless device and the server. As such, the mobile wireless device may periodically send keep alive messages to the server to keep current the binding at the intermediate node.